Nice work if you can get it By the Editorial BoardPublished June 24, 2014As it turns out, “The Quiet Don” has a quieted author — at least in terms of the Lackawanna County Library System lecture series.

Matt Birkbeck, a former reporter for The Morning Call of Allentown and the author of “The Quiet Don,” had been booked by the library system and paid $1,500 to appear Monday night. But after sending the check to Mr. Birkbeck, the library suddenly canceled his appearance. So Mr. Birkbeck was, in effect, paid not to appear — nice work if you can get it. (The series is funded by private and public funds.) The book contends that the late Russell Bufaliino of Kingston quietly built an organized crime empire in Northeast Pennsylvania from the 1930s into the 1960s while much of the national media and law enforcement were focused on mob activity in major cities. And, as in an earlier book by Charles Brandt, “I Heard You Paint Houses,” Mr. Birkbeck contends that Mr. Bufalino was involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa in a war over control of the Teamsters union. And the book mirrors some of Mr. Birkbeck’s earlier reporting, dealing with the state’s creation of the Pennsylvania casino industry and the award of a license to Dunmore businessman Louis DeNaples.

The NEPA subject matter naturally has created a great deal of local interest in the book. Yet Mary Garm, administrator of the Lackawannaq County Library System, said Monday that she canceled Mr. Birkbeck’s appearance for fear that he would draw a small crowd. Mr. Birkbeck had made some other local appearances, including at Marywood University, she said. Canceling the appearance, she said, saved the expense of renting the venue and advertising.

According to Ms. Garm, she made the decision and the library board approved it, and there was no pressure for cancellation from the board or other parties. Lack of public interest isn’t reflected in the library’s own experience. According to Ms. Garm and Jack Finnerty, director of the Scranton Public Library, the book has been among the most heavily circulated in the system for some time. The library must have recognized the level of interest when it booked Mr. Birkbeck. And multiple appearances by an author rarely have been taken to indicate a lack of public interest. In recent years the lecture series has been an invaluable asset to the area, bringing such luminaries as David McCullough and presidential historian Michael Beschloss, among many others, to the Scranton Cultural Center. Here’s hoping that in the future, the library trusts its own circulation numbers when gauging public interest in an invited speaker, and pays authors to appear.